Relationship Accountability: Keeping Your Side of the Street Clean

Taking personal responsibility for your words and actions can have a very positive impact on your relationships. An easy tool for this is to visualize keeping your side of the street clean. It is a simple way to continually remind yourself to lead a life consistent with your personal values and standards. It should help you focus on how you are conducting your life with respect to others and make you less concerned about what is happening on someone else’s side of the street. You can only control how you move through life and the better you feel about that personal journey the better you will feel about yourself.

No one is perfect. Occasionally, you will dump some garbage on the street. For example, you make take the bad day you are having out on someone else. If this occurs, it is important to clean it up by being accountable for it. That accountability requires recognition of your actions. And maybe, that accountability may dictate an apology or other repair.

Many couples use this accountability concept as a way of keeping themselves and their partners respectful. Promptly taking responsibility for your actions is a tool for identifying how or where things might have gone off the path in your relationship and what needs to be done to get back on track. By taking responsibility for your actions, you will build trust and respect in your relationships.